Mike Eldred

Mike Eldred started playing guitar at 14 when
his folks bought him a guitar. Mike says he
couldn’t really play it, he just made noise
until a guy tuned it up and taught him “Oh
Carol” by Chuck Berry.

There was a family that lived across the street
from Mike when he was a kid and they would have
him listen to Coltrane, Zappa, T-Bone,
everything… very eclectic. They took him to his
first blues concert which was Lightnin’ Hopkins
at some club. Mike was about 16 years old then
and says it blew his mind.

He eventually started a blues band with Mike
Magrann, a singer for the punk band CH3. The
band recorded a demo tape to get club bookings,
and it made its way into Brian Setzer’s hands.
The Stray Cats were breaking up, and Lee Rocker
wanted to start a blues band. Brian gave Lee
Mike’s tape, and they put out two records on the
Black Top label. That experience helped Mike
find a foundation and eventually he left to
start his own band.

The Mike Eldred Trio has put out three albums,
and is working on their fourth. Their last album
“Baptist Town,” tells of the struggles
throughout the South, and focuses on a tiny
community outside Greenwood, MS. called Baptist
Town. It is where Robert Johnson lived and died,
and continues to be a source of inspiration for
Mike today. The album was voted one of the Top
Ten releases of 2016 by the Los Angeles Times.